Ozy and Millie

Last updated

Ozy and Millie
Ozzy and Millie cover.jpg
Cover of the 2018 collection
Author(s) Dana Simpson
Website OzyAndMillie.org
Current status/scheduleEnded
Launch dateApril 29, 1998
End dateDecember 23, 2008
Publisher(s) Plan Nine Publishing
Universal Uclick
Genre(s)Satire/Comedy

Ozy and Millie is a webcomic that ran from 1998 to 2008, created by Dana Simpson [1] [2] (originally published under D.C. Simpson). It follows the adventures of assorted anthropomorphic animals, centering on Ozy and Millie, two young foxes attending North Harbordale Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, contending with everyday elementary school issues such as tests and bullies, as well as more surreal situations. [3]

Contents

The strip mostly concentrates on character interaction, but sometimes veers into commentary based on author Simpson's own political views.

Publication history

Ozy and Millie originally started as a printed comic strip in a Washington college newspaper, the Copper Point Journal , in 1997, with Simpson using ink and brush as drawing implements. [4] Simpson claims to have been influenced by various comics and cartoons such as Bloom County , Calvin and Hobbes , The Simpsons , and Pogo . [5]

It became an irregular webcomic in early 1998. In June that same year, it was changed to a Monday-Friday daily strip. The comic led Simpson to win the Scripps-Howard Foundation Charles M. Schulz College Cartoonist award and a College Media Advisors: Best Strip Cartoon award. [2]

It is important to note that the strip has gone on hiatus several times. In 2000, the strip went on hiatus and returned with a new, unique style. Between January 30, 2004, and January 12, 2009, Simpson also ran another strip, I Drew This, a webcomic specifically about her political views (which are also slightly expressed in Ozy and Millie). [6] [7]

The comic was part of Keenspot from 2001 to 2003, going independent for several years [8] before returning to Keenspot in November 2006. [9] New strips were released on most weekdays, though the strip's run ended in December of 2008. [10] Since then, it has been re-run intermittently on GoComics. [11]

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall included six pages of interview illustrated with Ozy and Millie strips in Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists . [12] [13]

Collected editions

Most of the strips have been reprinted in book form. They are published as follows:

CollectionNameISBNPages
Out of print
Ozy and Millie ISBN   1929462115
Ozy and Millie II: Never Mind Pants ISBN   1929462204
Ozy and Millie III: Ink and White Space ISBN   1929462433
Ozy and Millie IV: Authentic Banana Dye ISBN   1929462565
Ozy and Millie V: Om ISBN   1929462697‡
Seven volume collection
Prehistrionics: Ozy and Millie, 1997–2000 ISBN   1847287735 176
The Big Book of Ancient, Semi-Coherent Wisdom: Ozy and Millie, 2000–2001 ISBN   9781430315056 132
Zen Again: Ozy and Millie, 2001–2002 ISBN   9781430315087 128
Perpetual Motion: Ozy and Millie, 2002–2003 ISBN   9781430321163 128
Tofu Knights: Ozy and Millie, 2004–2005 ISBN   1847287727 128
Closer to the Void: Ozy and Millie, 2006–2007 ISBN   9781435705043 127
Never Grow Up: One More Ozy and Millie CollectionN/A127
Two volume collectionThe Complete Ozy and Millie, Volume 1N/A337
The Complete Ozy and Millie, Volume 2N/A336
Best of collectionOzy and MillieHardcover ISBN   9781449499433
Paperback ISBN   9781449495954 		178
176
Ozy and Millie: Perfectly NormalPaperback ISBN   9781524865092 177

‡ Volume 5 of the original printing by Plan Nine Publishing shares an ISBN with Orange Alert by John Robey, a webcomic printed by the same publisher. [14]

Characters

Ozy

Ozymandias Justin Llewellyn is a ten-year-old anthropomorphic fox of an unidentified species (also called an "Adolescent Gray Zen Fox") who attends North Harbordale Elementary School in Seattle with his friend, Millie. His full name, Ozymandias Justin Llewellyn, is a reference to the famous poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. [15] [16]

Ozy is recognised by his large top hat, which he got from his adoptive father, Llewellyn. The only other clothing he wears is a vest, which makes him the target of some of Millie's practical jokes. He is adept at letting Millie's pranks pass by without effect, but he does suffer bullying at the hands of the school jock, Jeremy, who likes to stuff Ozy into trash cans. Ozy is also quiescent and serene, usually playing the "straight person". Under Llewellyn's guidance, Ozy also practices Zen (or rather, a humorous version of it). [17] [18]

Millie

Millicent Mehitabel Mudd, better known as Millie, is a ten-year-old red fox girl who is best friends with Ozy. Millie is usually seen wearing a set of blue denim overalls. Unlike Ozy, who is calm, Millie is chaotic and crafty, both in the destruction she leaves behind and the ways she devises of avoiding work (or attempting to). [15] [16] [18] She is a rebel and is opposed to any form of authority, which regularly leads to confrontations with both her teacher, Ms. Sorkowitz, and her mother, Mililani Mudd. Although she is normally manic, she also has a strong sense of justice, facing the inexplicable wrongs of life and the world she sees. However, her rebellions are mostly limited to annoying her mother, playing jokes on Ozy and disrupting the peace at school; none of which matters any less to her, as long as she has fun doing it. [19] She, like Ozy, often tries to answer the most important questions in life, but her method of finding the answers makes her unique. [17]

Llewellyn

Ozy's adoptive father, known only as Llewellyn, is a red dragon. Llewellyn and other members of his dragon family have been responsible for running several secret conspiracies. [16] He also lends both Ozy and Millie advice, although his advice can tend to be nonsense. [15] [16] The words in his speech balloons are always in the Blackletter font, unlike most of the characters. Llewellyn married Millie's Mother at the end of the Daily Strip. Of all the characters in Ozy and Millie, Simpson has claimed that Llewellyn is her favorite. [5]

Ms. Mudd

Ms. Mililani Minerva Mudd, [20] Millie's mother, is a lawyer, who is an older, wiser, more temperate version of Millie. She was like Millie in her childhood, and as a result knows how to deal with any trouble caused by her, much to Millie's annoyance. [15] [16] While Ms. Mudd knows how to deal with Millie, she is also the first to lend her support if there is anything amiss. She married Llewellyn at the end of the strip's run in a story arc from November–December 2008. Her full name was revealed on October 1, 2008.

Other characters

Other characters in Ozy and Millie include Avery, a raccoon friend who constantly tries to be "cool," even ditching his "uncool" friends on frequent occasions. [18] Ironically, his friend, Stephan the aardvark, is rather the nerdiest character in the strip. [18] Avery's curious younger brother, Timulty, constantly undermines his coolness, although he simply likes being with him and his friends. The two major antagonists are Felicia the sheep, a "popular girl" who teases Millie for being too individualistic, [18] and Jeremy the jock rabbit who bullies Ozy for few reasons. [15] [18]

Other minor characters include Ms. Sorkowitz, Ozy and Millie's kangaroo teacher, and Principal Beau Vine, the bull principal of the school who allows bullying, believing that "Repeated exposure to unprovoked assault squelches unhealthy nonconformist tendencies." Dr. I. Wahnsinnig (the German word for insane or mad) is a ring-tailed lemur and psychiatrist of the school who fights with Vine over school issues and frequently interacts with Millie. Ozy's dragon cousin, Isolde, is known for her unusual methods in her job in journalism, and, like Llewellyn, is in charge of various conspiracies. Another character is Pirate Captain Locke, a child pirate from an alternate dimension on the other side of Llewellyn's couch, in which people age backwards. Locke, currently the same age as Millie, is also her biological father. [15]

Reception

Critic Fred Patten is one of the main supporters of the strip. In 2001, he wrote that the strip was, "a gently humorous fantasy with a liberal political philosophy." [19] In 2006, Patten still claimed that, "Ozy and Millie is one of the top anthropomorphic cartoon strips on the Internet," although he did also comment negatively about the loss of colour in between changes of printed editions of books. [17] The comic is also popular because of its relatively inoffensive content, with one person writing that it was, "Suitable for readers of all ages, really." [21] The strip (the books, specifically) has also received decent reviews from outside sources and other critics. [22]

In 2002, the strip won the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards for "Best Anthropomorphic Comic". [23] Ozy and Millie also won the 2006 [24] and 2007 Ursa Major Awards for "Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip". [25] [26] In 2009 (the year after she ended the strip), she won that year's Comic Strip Superstar contest. [27] [28]

See also

Related Research Articles

Webcomics are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Sakai</span> Japanese-American cartoonist and comic book creator

Stan Masahiko Sakai is a Japanese-born American cartoonist and comic book creator. He is best known as the creator of the comic series Usagi Yojimbo.

Kevin and Kell is a furry comedy webcomic strip by syndicated cartoonist Bill Holbrook. The strip began on September 3, 1995, and is one of the oldest continuously running webcomics. The comic's website states it is "The World's Longest Running Daily Webcomic".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keenspot</span> Webcomics hosting service

Keenspot is a webcomics/webtoons portal founded in March 2000 by cartoonist Chris Crosby, Crosby's mother Teri, cartoonist Darren Bleuel, and Nathan Stone.

<i>Real Life</i> (webcomic) American webcomic by Maelyn Dean

Real Life is an American webcomic drawn and authored by Maelyn Dean. It began on November 15, 1999, and is still updated, after breaks from December 10, 2015, to September 10, 2018, and again from July 16, 2019, to June 15, 2020, from December 6, 2022 to February 26th, 2024, and most recently, from April 9, 2024, to present. The comic is loosely based around the lives of fictionalized versions of Dean and her friends, including verbatim conversations, as well as fictional aspects including time travel and mecha combat. Characters regularly break the fourth wall. Real Life focuses on humor related to video games and science fiction, and references internet memes.

"Ozymandias" is a poem published in 1818 by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

<i>VG Cats</i> Webcomic by Scott Ramsoomair

VG Cats is a webcomic written and drawn by Canadian cartoonist Scott Ramsoomair. Published on its own website, it follows the adventures of a pair of anthropomorphic cats, who both have an interest in video games, and often play the roles of characters in popular games that are parodied in the strip.

<i>Scary Go Round</i> 2002 webcomic by John Allison

Scary Go Round is a webcomic by John Allison. Running from 2002 to 2009, it is set in the fictional North Yorkshire town of Tackleford and follows university students battling fantasy and science fiction threats to the town. The comic was a successor to Allison's first comic, Bobbins, and was followed by Bad Machinery, all of which take place in the same general setting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaenon K. Garrity</span> American writer and critic

Shaenon K. Garrity is an American webcomic creator and science-fiction author best known for her webcomics Narbonic and Skin Horse. She collaborated with various artists to write webcomics for the Modern Tales-family of webcomic subscription services in the early 2000s, and write columns for various comics journals. Since 2003, Garrity has done freelance editing for Viz Media on various manga translations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana Simpson</span> American cartoonist

Dana Claire Simpson, is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the comic Phoebe and her Unicorn, as well as the long-running webcomic Ozy and Millie. Other works created by Simpson include the political commentary cartoon I Drew This and the alternate reality drama comic Raine Dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Guigar</span> American cartoonist

Brad Guigar is an American cartoonist who is best known for his daily webcomic Greystone Inn and its sequel Evil Inc.

Chris Crosby is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of Keenspot, a company providing a platform and network for webcomics. They are also a comics writer and artist, with works including Superosity, Sore Thumbs, and Snap The Punk Turtle.

Sheldon is a comedy webcomic created by Dave Kellett. It centers on the odd family unit of 10-year-old Sheldon, his grandfather guardian and his talking duck, Arthur. Much humour is character-based, often joking at traits such as Sheldon's geekiness, Gramp's old age or Arthur's over-inflated ego. Kellett's other webcomic, Drive, had appeared on the Sheldon site each Saturday, before moving to a site of its own.

The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards (WCCA) were annual awards in which established webcartoonists nominated and selected outstanding webcomics. The awards were held between 2001 and 2008, were mentioned in a New York Times column on webcomics in 2005, and have been mentioned as a tool for librarians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. J. Coffman</span>

Donald Jesse "D.J." Coffman is an American cartoonist. He is best known as the creator of the Hero by Night comic book series and the webcomic Yirmumah. Coffman also has done work on the Monkey Man comic series with writer Brian Lynch that included a webcomic on Kevin Smith's MoviePoopShoot.com.

<i>Phoebe and Her Unicorn</i> Childrens comic strip

Phoebe and Her Unicorn is a daily children's comic strip by American cartoonist Dana Simpson. Originally called Heavenly Nostrils, the strip debuted as a webcomic on April 22, 2012, in Universal Uclick's GoComics website. It was later launched in more than 100 newspapers on March 30, 2015, under the current name.

Notable events of 2008 in webcomics.

Notable events of the late 1990s in webcomics.

References

  1. ↑ "About Dana". Ozy and Millie website. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Dana Simpson". www.danasimpson.com. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  3. ↑ Patten, Fred (July–August 2007). "Ozy and Millie, by D. C. Simpson". Anthro. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Ozy and Millie: Creator". www.glasswings.com.au. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Schroeder, Al (October 2004). "OzyFest: An Interview with D. C. Simpson". Comixtalk. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  6. ↑ Simpson, D. C. (January 20, 2004). "Mars". I Drew This. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2008.
  7. ↑ Simpson, Dana. "Bird Brains: Comics and Commentary" . Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  8. ↑ Xerexes, Xaviar (February 10, 2003). "Ozy & Millie Off Keenspot?". Comixtalk. Archived from the original on June 15, 2007. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  9. ↑ Crosby, Chris (January 1, 2006). "Ozy and Millie Rejoins Keenspot". Comixtalk. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  10. ↑ Parry), GreenReaper (Laurence (May 4, 2008). "'Ozy and Millie' to end after ten year run". Flayrah. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Ozy and Mille," GoComics website. Accessed Nov. 15, 2017.
  12. ↑ Rall, Ted (2006). Attitude 3: the new subversive online cartoonists. NBM Publishing. pp. 21–26. ISBN   978-1-56163-465-1.
  13. ↑ Xerexes, Xaviar (February 7, 2006). ""Attitude 3" Available for Pre-Sale on Amazon". Comixtalk. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  14. ↑ Robey, John (January 1, 2004). Orange Alert | Paperback – January 1, 2004. Plan Nine Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN   1929462697.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Simpson, D. C. "Cast". Ozy and Millie. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ozy and Millie: Cast". www.glasswings.com.au. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  17. 1 2 3 Patten, Fred (July–August 2006). "Tofu Knights: Ozy and Millie, 2004–2005". Anthro. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ozy and Millie". All The Tropes. February 18, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  19. 1 2 Patten, Fred (December 2001). "Ozy and Millie". Witty World. Archived from the original on May 18, 2007. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  20. ↑ Millie's mother's full name Archived October 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ↑ sQuonk (November 12, 2006). "Ozy and Millie by D. C. Simpson". Disjointed Ramblings. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  22. ↑ "Review: 'Ozy and Millie' TP". icv2.com. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  23. ↑ "2002 Winners and Nominees". Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. Archived from the original on December 8, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  24. ↑ Pechanec, J; P Holan; OT Kochlica; P Čáslava (2007). "E-zin sci-fi rubriky Neviditelného psa" (PDF) (in Czech). p. 185. Retrieved November 4, 2010. URSA Major Awards 2006 ... Strip: Ozy and Millie, by D C Simpson
  25. ↑ "Award Winners 2006". Ursa Major Awards. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  26. ↑ "Award Winners 2007". Ursa Major Awards. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  27. ↑ "Award-Winning Cartoonist and Graphic Novelist Dana Simpson On Backlogging Ideas, Drawing To Spark Her Writing, and The Artists Who Tend To Make It". Writing Routines. December 12, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  28. ↑ Melrose, Kevin (November 10, 2009). "Dana Simpson wins Amazon's Comic Strip Superstar contest". CBR. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.